DATE: Wednesday, March 5, 1997              TAG: 9703060033

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  107 lines

LETTERS [TO THE EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT]

The Feb. 23 front-page article on childrens' health was very interesting. I was heartened to see that ``lack of breastfeeding'' was recognized as a health problem.

Indeed, it is a real problem that most health professionals need to take more seriously. Many are led to believe that artificial baby milk (formula) is ``just as good'' as breast milk. But it is not. Unlike formula, breast milk is the perfect nutrition for babies and contains valuable antibodies that help keep them healthy. And there are many other health advantages to the child. In fact, studies have suggested that asthma and child abuse can be helped by breastfeeding.

Many health-care providers in our area are lukewarm about the advantages of breastfeeding and are often ignorant of breastfeeding management. The goal of having 75 percent of babies in Hampton Roads breastfeeding by the year 2000 is a worthy goal but unrealistic unless more health-care providers are convinced of the value of it and learn more about it.

Pamela K. Wiggins

International Board Certified

Lactation Consultant

Franklin, Feb. 24, 1997 LARCHMONT Personal safety vs. helping the needy

I live in Larchmont and have had my property vandalized twice. I wish to respond to the two letters that appeared in this column on Sunday, Feb. 23.

There are two sides to the problem we face here in Larchmont. One side is our right and responsibility to do what we feel will protect our families and property from criminal attack, and the other is to do so but not indict, wrongfully, people who really want a chance to make their lives better.

We may see a time when we'll wish that needy people were doing whatever it takes to make an honest living, even if it means hanging advertisements on our doorknobs. The felons who can't find jobs or get help from community programs will find other ways to survive.

A friend of mine in her 70s told me about allowing her yard person (a convicted felon) to sleep in her house on two very cold nights this winter because he had nowhere to go. All she said was, ``What could I do? We are commanded to help others and share what we have.'' In my heart, I knew she was right.

How we solve one problem may very well solve the other. It's up to us.

Rita L. Foster

Norfolk, Feb. 24, 1997 MEDICINE Infant pain not always recognized

One of the response letters you published Feb. 6 stated that Ingrid Newkirk of PETA was wrong in saying that doctors did not believe that babies felt pain. Newkirk was correct. In medical school, I learned that the pain felt by infants was not recognized by the medical field because their neurological systems are not fully developed. Until as recently as the early 1980s, major surgeries were performed on infants without anesthesia.

Thankfully, this is no longer the case. However, much of the medical establishment is still not up-to-date in recognizing and acknowledging the pain felt by nonhuman animals. Simple anesthesia and pain killers are often denied to animals used in experimentation if the researchers feel they will affect their data. As a result of this and other factors, animals in labs suffer immensely.

Alternatives to animal experiments do exist, and many more will emerge if the medical field devotes its energies away from animal experiments and toward kinder, more effective and more reliable methods of testing.

Aysha Akhtar

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Norfolk, Feb. 21, 1997 NORFOLK A councilman can be a customer

In regard to your Feb. 22 editorial about Norfolk Councilman Paul R. Riddick, ``Shape up or go'':

How many times has Councilman Randy Wright lost control of his anger in City Council meetings, or any other councilman for that matter? Did they ever embarrass their fellow councilmen or constituents to the point of ``ship(ping) him out''? I do not see the connection between Riddick's wanting to get quality goods for money he paid and his actions as a councilman. What happened to the words ``the customer is always right''? Or do they only apply to non-officeholders?

Your editorial didn't shed much light on what really happened. But even if what is implied is correct, Councilman Riddick, from what I gather, was acting in the capacity of ``Mr.'' Riddick with a legitimate dispute about a purchase, and it should have been left at that.

Dalora Anderson

Norfolk, Feb. 22, 1997 HISTORY Attucks: first urban terrorist?

The story of Crispus Attucks (Daily Break, Feb. 22) demonstrates once again the sometimes exaggerated interpretations given to events and persons in the annual showcase, Black History Month.

The Boston Massacre itself has been heralded in American history books as something quite different from what it actually was - simple mob violence beyond the bounds of legitimate protest. The British soldier who fired into the mob was later defended by John Adams and was acquitted.

As for Attucks' role, he was a mulatto sailor whom fate had standing at the scene and was himself agitating the mob when he was killed.

Could therefore Attucks not perhaps qualify as being the first urban terrorist who confused criminal orgies with civil rights? He cannot be logically ranked with the great patriots of the American Revolution.

Elliott Downson

Virginia Beach, Feb. 24, 1997

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